Manly will be without prop Richie Fa’aoso and centre Steve Matai for Monday’s NRL clash with St George Illawarra after both accepted early guilty pleas on Tuesday.
Matai was charged with a grade one careless high tackle on South Sydney’s George Burgess in Friday night’s loss at Brookvale Oval, and will miss just one game.
Fa’aoso has been hit with a combined ban of eight games stemming from separate dangerous throws on Greg Inglis.
He will be unavailable until Manly’s round 18 clash with North Queensland.
As expected, Sea Eagles fullback Brett Stewart also accepted the early plea for his grade one dangerous contact charge, for an apparent elbow on Rabbitoh Andrew Everingham, and is free to face the Dragons.
An exasperated Manly coach Geoff Toovey on Tuesday morning explained why he felt hamstrung by the judiciary process, admitting he had not spoken to referee’s boss Daniel Anderson about the fallout from Friday’s spiteful clash at Brookvale Oval.
But Toovey did speak to former referee Russell Smith, who reviewed the game, and got nowhere.
“As I said, it’s just a waste of time. Why bother,” Toovey said.
According to Toovey, fighting Matai’s low grade charge was too fraught with danger as the burden of proof was on the Sea Eagles to prove there was no contact with the head or neck, leaving them at the mercy of what the various camera angles can pick up.
“We’ve looked at it a thousand times with different angles (and) you can’t positively say he did or he didn’t (make contact with the head),” Toovey said.
“The bloke who he tackles (Burgess) jumps up and gets into the barney just after it so … come on, please.
“…And unfortunately you’ve got to prove your innocence.
“How can you do that when the camera angles aren’t there? They’ll just speculate that you did hit him.”
Matai’s arm appeared to slip up off the ball toward Burgess’ head, sparking an all-in melee.
And Matai’s teammates made their feelings known on the tackle itself, rallying behind the hard-hitting former New Zealand international.
“Are you allowed to swear? That was f****ng awesome man,” winger Jorge Taufua said of the hit.
“I love playing outside that guy. When he pulls it off, I just lose it.
“I loved it.”
Newcastle prop Kade Snowden is free to play Cronulla on Sunday after pleading guilty to a grade two careless high tackle against the Gold Coast’s Luke O’Dwyer.